Monday afternoon, I packed a duffle bag for the overnight in Minneapolis, throwing sleep clothes and a nice casual outfit for Summer orientation the next day. Noah and Luke picked me up around 6pm and we made the drive over to a small hotel in the city. We checked in a little after 9:00 and threw our luggage down across the basic room, two queen beds in the middle and a desk in the corner. Sad and dated, but clean.
“Ugh, I swear this shirt smells like gasoline,” Noah muttered, sniffing himself and crinkling his nose.
Luke, already sorting his soccer shorts into a neat pile on the dresser, snorted. “My bad again!” Luke protested, a reference to accidentally spilling some gas at the station onto Noah’s car, which he had to clean.
Noah, taller and lankier than Luke, folded a crisp shirt carefully and looked annoyed. “I didn’t feel like showering tonight, ugh Luke.”
“You’re welcome. You probably would’ve stunk tomorrow if you hadn’t” he ribbed, the two of them always bickering.
I loved being on the side of their banter, knowing each felt closer to me than their own brother. Despite the fatigue settling in, there was an undercurrent of nervous energy for orientation tomorrow.
“So,” I said, “tomorrow. Big day.”
Luke stretched, popping his shoulders. “Just ready to get it over with. See the campus, figure out where everything is. Standard stuff.” He said it with a nonchalant shrug. He was more excited about soccer, about the new field, the new team.
“Been through this already,” Noah chimed in. “Mine’s just going to be meeting my grad class, I already know my professors from interviews.” He was starting his grad program in engineering.
“At least we get to suffer through ours together,” I said to Luke, a genuine smile spreading across my face.
Noah zipped up his suitcase, looking considerably more organized than either of us. Luke sat on the edge of one of the beds, bouncing slightly.
“I’m gonna take a shower, I’ll be right back.” Noah disappeared into the bathroom with a towel.
“Disappointed you didn’t get to see him start to undress?” Luke teased.
“Fuck off!” I laughed.
“He’s just an uglier version of me.” Luke flipped his hair dramatically and grinned.
A few minutes later, Noah emerged from the bathroom after his shower, in just athletic shorts, looking his age of 22. This was my first glimpse ever of his body.
His torso was much slimmer than Luke’s like I expected. He had a swirl of dark blonde chest hair in between his pecs that led down in a thin line all the way past his stomach to his waist, a steady happy trail top to bottom of very light length.
Once again, he just seemed older than us, more fully formed somehow, baby fat on his body gone. He had faint abs that showed through from his skinniness. It was very mild muscle, like me, in general, but slim enough to have some abs when they flexed. He was hot.
He glanced at the beds, then at Luke and me. I noticed a faint shift in his posture. I knew Noah well enough to know he was processing something internally.
“Okay, so,” Noah said, his voice a little too bright. He gestured towards the beds. “Sleeping arrangements…” He paused, looking briefly at Luke, then away. “Maybe Luke and I can share? Make it easier being family? You take that bed, Olly.”
My breath caught, just for a second. Easier? I knew exactly what Noah was thinking. He was still operating under the assumption that Luke and I sharing a bed would be awkward.
But before I could figure out how to respond, Luke spoke up. “Nah, dude, that’s alright,” Luke said instantly, pushing off the bed. His tone was casual, dismissive of Noah’s suggestion.
He walked over to the bed I was on and flopped down next to me, bouncing the mattress again. “Olly and I can split this one.”
He paused, loading his verbal gun at Noah and fired, “plus, I’d literally rather sleep in the street, than share a bed with you, Noah.”
Noah stared, toothbrush hanging halfway out of his mouth. His eyes widened slightly in surprise. He recovered, slowly pulling the toothbrush out. A sheepish, slightly bewildered smile spread across his face. “Okay that works...and you can walk back home tomorrow Lucas.” He said sarcastically.
Luke grinned. “Only kidding, big bro. You take the other bed. We’ll take this one. Just…try not to snore and keep us up, alright?”
Noah shook his head, still smiling, and rinsed his mouth. “Duly noted, douchebag.”
Noah finished up in the bathroom, then went to the other bed, pulling back the covers. Luke and I stayed on ‘our’ bed, the one we’d claimed. I stretched out properly, getting comfortable. My arm brushed Luke’s accidentally, but he didn't move away.
We fell into a comfortable silence for a few minutes, the only sounds the rustling of sheets and hum of the hotel air conditioning.
“Okay boys, good night.”
“Night, Noah,” we both mumbled back.
Luke shifted, settling deeper under the covers. I did the same, turning onto my side, facing away from him but feeling the warmth of his body next to me. The mattress dipped slightly under his weight.
My mind drifted, thoughts swirling about orientation, meeting new people…college.
Slowly, the sounds in the room softened. Noah’s breathing evened out from the other bed. Luke’s breathing was a steady rhythm beside me. My eyelids felt heavy. Sleep came easily tonight.
The next morning was a scramble to get ready and get over for orientation. Luke and I paired up for most of the icebreaker events in the morning, clearly at an advantage over everyone else coming in alone. Our easier energy was a magnet for everyone there, about 25 people in our group from across the Midwest, all anxious for college.
There were all kinds of people there, but I was struck most by how much I liked everyone. It really felt like coming to a big state university, that I’d be surrounded soon by interesting, kinder, more mature people my age than some from high school.
Having Luke was a life saver. A basketball player, Tristan, from Michigan, saw Luke’s soccer shirt and introduced himself. A pretty and outgoing girl named Rachel who was interested in my “fun fact” of loving hiking said hey to me. Another kid, Austin, who was drawn to Luke’s fun fact about video games, latched on that.
It was a series of small connections leading to each person working up the courage to introduce themselves to one or both of us, followed by Luke and I immediately telling them about each other and relaying the intro. It was like having double the opportunity for friends immediately. It was also obvious that people envied that we were able to come here together.
The day was only about four hours, but we got to meet awesome people, tour the campus, and get a feel for next steps the rest of the Summer. By the end, Luke and I had collected phone numbers of new friends, lined up some clubs we might be interested in, and were ready to get to August.
Around 3:00, we wandered back towards Noah’s car. He was waiting for us and sitting on the hood of his car.
“There are my big freshman boys!!” He jumped down and squeezed our cheeks. Luke slapped his hand away.
“Shut up, old man,” Luke teased.
“How was it?” Noah asked, genuinely interested, as we hopped into the car and started our journey home.
“Actually really fun,” I started, “I felt like the people were really cool. The campus is really beautiful, I loved the covered bridge area over the river. And it’s cool that we’ll get to spend more time taking classes we actually want to take. I’m really excited for the Fall!”
“Wow Olly, someone is excited for schoooool,” Luke made fun of my long-winded answer.
“I’m just saying! I didn’t know what to expect! I’m excited now!” I threw my hands up.
“That’s really cool Olly,” Noah seemed happy, “college is awesome. You should be excited! Any idea what you might want to study?”
“I’m not sure yet. We didn’t have to declare yet! I’m a little nervous about trying to figure it out to be honest.” I admitted.
“Have you guys talked about it, like with your group of friends?” Noah asked, looking at me in the rear view mirror.
“Nahhh,” Luke started, “we don’t really talk about that kinda stuff.” He scrolled on his phone, bored by the conversation.
“Well that’s…dumb?” Noah called us out, laughing. “If you want to talk through it sometime Olly, I’m happy to listen and help.” He offered, once again putting himself out there to hang out with me.
“That would be really cool Noah.” I made a mental note to finally follow up with him soon to hang out.
We spent the rest of the ride mostly in easy silence as I thought about my future to come.
Author Note: This is a long form (50 parts) series. All 50 parts are currently up and finished on my Patreon. I was interested in sharing it in this community and hope you'll consider subscribing to my Patreon.com/GoldenGhostPen if you're interested in reading more! Book Two coming in MAY!
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